6 August 2013

Linpus Lite 1.9.3 review :Light ,elegant distro .




Linpus Linux is a commercial Linux operating system based on the popular Fedora distribution. It is developed by Linpus Technologies. Inc., a Linux software solutions provider headquartered in Taiwan. The product's main features are: easily switchable touch-based mouse and keyboard launchers; web applications integrated with the launchers; HTML 5 widget panel; full theme changes and compatibility with a wide range of computer hardware.

The latest edition, Linpus Lite 1.9.3 , was released  June of this year  featuring grub 2, gnome  shell 3.4.1 and linux kernel 3.7.10 .Actually it is based on fedora Gnome 3 so i visited their site and downloaded the latest edition of linpus lite live version which is around 500 mb in size.

Installation is just simple where some steps are required actually language,keyboard to install distro alongwith root n user password. It took me around just 4 minutes to install it on dell Inspirion laptop . The distribution’s installation program is a fork of Anaconda, the graphical installation program of Fedora. So, it’s very easy to use, with both automated and manual disk partitioning options .For a new user, provided  if familiar with the basics of disks and disk partitioning in Linux, it is very easy to create a custom set of partitions using the installer’s manual partitioning tool.The default file system on all the partitions created by the installer is ext4, even on the boot partition.

The Linpus Lite installer is fork of Anaconda, lacking some of Anaconda’s best  .So LVM( Linux Logical volume Manager), Disk Encrypter, boot-loader's  password safety has  three features making  Anaconda as one of the nicest installer  available which are  Left off from Linpus Lite’s edition. Also missing is the option to choose the location of the boot loader, which makes dual-booting this distribution with any other operating system a little bit more involved than is necessary.

The desktop is powered by GNOME 3 (GNOME 3.4), and features a highly modified GNOME Shell. It has two modes – Simple Mode and Desktop Mode. The later is default mode .In Desktop mode, you get a non-classic menu with a search feature. The menu is just like one of those that you can enable on any GNOME 3 desktop via Extensions. My impression is that the system is EASY  to use.   In other words, the desktop is helping me to get stuff done.









Now simple mode  The image below shows the “home” screen of the Simple Mode. By default, the transition from one screen to the other takes place using the carousel effect. But there are five other effects to choose from, if you don’t like the default.




This image shows the application Category screen and you can reorder the Category icons by drag-and-drop.




you can search apps as shown here



 Note that Daily Widget is turned off by default setting.






Like everything else, the system is not perfect. .The  problem I encountered concerns the network interface when the system is coming out of hibernation or suspension. On every other distribution that I’ve used, the network interface is activated as soon as the system “wakes up.”Also one issue i faced it automatically disconnect wired connectivity often which i have not seen and this is serious bug.

Actual performance of cpu .






One issue i had with this linux distro as i visited indian site it may be related to Indian users may be Indian language  fonts are available in repos. when i visited this site it looked awkward.

http://gujaratsamachar.com/




The display option has only two options and it worked well .



Linpus lite comes with lot of application which are daily needed for computing task ,around 460 application are there in software application centre .A major drawback of Application Center is that it is designed for installing and managing applications with graphical user interfaces, not those that can only be run from the command-line. So if you attempt to search for, say, cups or firewalld, no results will be returned. All non-gui applications have to be installed from the command-line. I found that it is better to run yum update to apply available updates than to use the Application Center’s update facility. That’s because it’s much faster


Post installation process is required to keep the distro stuff updated. you can do it through update your system or install remove software centre .




By default, the system is configured to check for updates daily.









BEWARE: Not all Free and Open Source applications are available in the Linpus repository. For example, libdvdcss or libdvdcss2, which is used by video players to play encrypted DVD videos, is not in repos. However, given that Linpus is based on Fedora, you can add third-party repositories to make up for what’s not in the official Linpus repository.

There is no audio or mp3 player or video player installed in default lite mode .

One that I’ve not come across on any other distribution that I have reviewed is called Smart Connect. The official description says that it “allows your computers to update users email, social networks frequently and automatically, even the system is asleep.” This is one feature of Linpus Lite 1.9 that i tested using thunderbird and messenger but as advertised it doesn't worked for me .




From the physical security angle, Linpus Lite 1.9 has nothing to offer. No full disk, or even home directory encryption. And no boot loader password-protection during the installation phase. Based on its lack of physical security features, this is not a distribution I want to install on any computer and firewall not installed .
so installed firewall which is not enabled by default .




And finally, when it comes to removable media, the default configuration is unable to tell whether an audio CD, DVD video or a USB Flash drive is inserted. You’ll always get the notification shown in this image .



Another problem is Application Center is that it has to be fullscreen before you can see all the information in the right column.



Even though the system is configured to check for updates daily, there is no updates notifier and you have to activate Daily Widget or launch the Application Center to know  updates are available.


some other screenshots







TIME TO CONCLUSION

Actually amazed by the distro perfomance as it detected my function keys for volume  Dell inspiron  laptop perfectly also brightness keys  worked very well for me but the problem of advanced installer like lvm and bootlader password and firewall and security issue should be taken into consider by developers.Apart from it is fantastic os to use you will enjoy it .

U can try it using ,

live usb doesn't work for me so have to burn cd.


 NOTE 

If  u have any issue just visit their forum you will get answered to all your queries .

http://www.linpus.com/products.html

you can download  from here





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